Hallelujah: Congress FINALLY does something USEFUL

We reported here yesterday about the molasses-like pace with which Congress is approaching some of President Trump’s big agenda items, such as dismantling Obamacare and reforming our onerous tax code.

Of course any dreams we had about smooth sailing once Hillary was defeated and we retained our House and Senate majorities were quickly smashed to smithereens as the Democrats began their full-frontal assault on the president — aided and abetted by our “old friends” John McCain and Lindsey Graham.

However, there is one small bright spot of hope…Congress is taking its first step to undo Barack Obama’s climate change agenda.

The House is expected to pass the bill, and President Trump will likely sign it. Supporters say it “re-balances” NASA’s budget back toward space exploration and away from global warming and earth science research. Republicans plan to end the more than $2 billion NASA spends on its Earth Science Mission Directorate.

“By rebalancing, I’d like for more funds to go into space exploration; we’re not going to zero out earth sciences,” Texas Republican, Rep. Lamar Smith, who chairs the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, told E&E News. “I’d like for us to remember what our priorities are, and there are another dozen agencies that study earth science and climate change, and they can continue to do that.”

NASA’s spending on earth and global warming science increased by 63 percent over the last eight years, making it the largest and fastest growing budget of any NASA science program. The agency now spends more on environmental research than many of its other science functions, including astrophysics and space technology. Those programs only get $781.5 million and $826.7 million, respectively.

Trump tapped former Republican Pennsylvania Rep. Bob Walker as a senior adviser to his NASA transition team — a man who thinks NASA should do less “politically correct environmental monitoring” and more space exploration.

Heck yeah. Without brutalizing Neil Armstrong’s famous quote, yes, it is just one small step for Congress, but at this point, we’ll take whatever we can get.

Meet Allen West

Allen West was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia in the same neighborhood where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once preached. He is the third of four generations of military servicemen in his family.

During his 22 year career in the United States Army, Lieutenant Colonel West served in several combat zones: in Operation Desert Storm, in Operation Iraqi Freedom, where he was a Battalion Commander in the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, and later in Afghanistan.